Psychiatry in Med School

[midwestpsychiatry]

I am interested in being a psychiatrist and have been applying to medical schools. I have been noticing however that medical school obviously involves a lot of time in other types of medicine that I am very unsure of my ability to do. I'm not really the type of person that loves blood and surgery and that sort. I was wondering if anyone has any advice if they have been in a similar situation as me. I'm quite nervous that I won't be able to perform as well as others in these areas.

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[MacDonaldTriad]

Being interested in becoming a psychiatrist means you are interested in becoming a doctor. There are not "other types of medicine", those are medicine. Maybe you are not interested in medicine. If you are not interested in becoming a psychologist and just want to do the psychotropic thing without the background education required, become a psychiatric NP.

 

[FlowRate]

Well, you'll spend 4 years learning the basics of all of the stuff that doctors do, including procedures, surgeries, physical exams, biochemistry, etc. Maybe 5-10% of that time will be spent on learning psychiatry. As a doctor (psychiatrist), you'll be expected to retain some (rusty) working knowledge of doctor things so that you can, at the very least, recognize who and when to call for help with a patient.

 

[saucin13]

I felt the same way when I was applying to medical school. I wished psychiatrists went to a separate school lol. I actually ended up enjoying other fields more than I had thought I would. So, you may surprise yourself. I also have friends who are going into psychiatry that were eager to get through the basic science and other rotations, so that they can focus on psychiatry. You may end up in either group but I will say if you are successful in completing your prereqs, standardized exams, you will likely be fine in medical school. Or at least your interest in psychiatry won't be why you hate med school..

 

[midwestpsychiatry]

My interest in psychiatry does lie in wanting do be a doctor. Maybe I didn't phrase my concern well. I'm just concerned that I will pass out, puke, or something in the OR or ER. What are your opinions on the desensitization process?

 

[Celexa]

My interest in psychiatry does lie in wanting do be a doctor. Maybe I didn't phrase my concern well. I'm just concerned that I will pass out, puke, or something in the OR or ER. What are your opinions on the desensitization process?

Most people get acclimated very quickly (the process essentially starts with anatomy lab). Unless you've repeatedly fainted at the sight of blood or otherwise have extreme reactions I doubt you'll have an issue with the whole blood and guts part of medicine.

We all have our weak points. Blood and trauma don't phase me for the most part but for some reason sputum can gross me out like no other. But you push through.

 

[wolfvgang22]

I was also the same way. While I enjoyed learning, I've never liked the more gross aspects of anatomy lab, wound care, or procedures. But every job has aspects you don't care for. If you are open minded and curious about how things work, you'll probably be pleasantly surprised how fascinating the different medical fields can be in training and get through the yucky stuff.

 

[Seroquel]

My interest in psychiatry does lie in wanting do be a doctor. Maybe I didn't phrase my concern well. I'm just concerned that I will pass out, puke, or something in the OR or ER. What are your opinions on the desensitization process?

I totally understand where you are coming from! I went into med school with the complete focus of going into psychiatry and some of the classes/rotations in med school were a bit of a slog. I passed out a few times in the OR during my obgyn rotation. But like someone above said, there were many things I ended up enjoying in medical school that I did not expect to and you absolutely get 'used' to it. After many times in the OR I reached the point where procedures/large amounts of blood, etc didn't bother me at all. You don't have to be in love with all of medicine or even most of it to be a psychiatrist. You do have to be fine with studying a ton, spending most of med school doing non-psych stuff and spending half of intern year on non-psych rotations. You are first and foremost a physician. Consider this carefully before signing up. Personally I think it's worth it and would do it again (granted only an intern! )

 

[FlowRate]

My interest in psychiatry does lie in wanting do be a doctor. Maybe I didn't phrase my concern well. I'm just concerned that I will pass out, puke, or something in the OR or ER. What are your opinions on the desensitization process?

Most people get used to it very quickly, even those who are squeamish or don't like to see blood. It helps that most situations appropriately dehumanize/intellectualize the patient to some degree e.g. doing a procedure or surgery and only focusing on what's in the field or acute medical management where a patient may be incidentally bleeding/vomiting/etc. where you're more focused on solving the medical issue.

As a premed, I had one fainting experience watching a procedure done on a kiddo who wouldn't stop screaming every time the PA did something. I had pretty much no problems with this stuff in med school. Despite having no issues during med school, I was a little surprised to find myself getting a little squeamish when I chose to watch some surgery vid recently.

It's just exposure. The more you see something, the less it bothers you.

 

[NontradCA]

My interest in psychiatry does lie in wanting do be a doctor. Maybe I didn't phrase my concern well. I'm just concerned that I will pass out, puke, or something in the OR or ER. What are your opinions on the desensitization process?

There are students who pass out every year. I think you’d get used to it. Who knows, maybe you’ll begin to love it, become a masochist and go into surgery

 

[Crayola227]

if you're in med school to begin with you're already a bit of a masochist... perfect!

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

I don't remember this being covered in orientation, then again, talk about worsening anticipatory anxiety...

 

[Coupd'Cat]

I am interested in being a psychiatrist and have been applying to medical schools. I have been noticing however that medical school obviously involves a lot of time in other types of medicine that I am very unsure of my ability to do. I'm not really the type of person that loves blood and surgery and that sort. I was wondering if anyone has any advice if they have been in a similar situation as me. I'm quite nervous that I won't be able to perform as well as others in these areas.

There's a little bit to be learned from everything, even if it's not your main intended jig. Makes it more fun in some ways. The times when I was a layer of latex glove away from someone's warm urine, bundling up their diarrhea-stained gown, disimpacting an elderly lady, or a-sticking a combative nonverbal patient, there was a part of me cackling and thinking "one day I will be far, far away from this."

In all seriousness though I think there's a lot of clinical thinking that translate well across specialties & I don't think our non-psychiatric rotations were a waste of time.

The rest of the body is interesting, it just happens to be more like plumbing.